Chapter Text
The audience waits with bated breath.
Jihoon steps forward to meet Jisoo coming up the stairs, matching their steps. The organ drones on deep in the background, grand and strong.
Reaching up on the tips of his toes, Jihoon lifts the black veil off Jisoo's face, letting it settle over the crown of his head.
"Do you accept your position as the right hand of the Head Light Mage, Dark Mage?" intones the man next to him as Jihoon nudges his right hand carefully between the inside of the black hood and Jisoo's cheek to hold his face.
"I do," drones the other man behind Jisoo, who lowers himself to one knee in front of Jihoon, looking up at him in deference. Through his own white veil, Jihoon sees Jisoo's eyes, staring and wide in an effort to keep awake.
Breathing deeply, Jihoon focuses, bringing his left hand, palm up, from his core. Jisoo's magic courses through his right palm, mixing with his own, coalescing solidly between them into a glowing ball before flattening out into a ring that expands to encompass both of them before contracting sharply.
Jihoon feels something in him twist, tighten. Jisoo closes his eyes, sags slightly into Jihoon's palm.
The audience cheers. Jihoon accepts Jisoo's proffered hand and leads him swiftly, head bowed, around to the back of the platform, down the stairs and back into the castle. Jisoo is crashing fast, sleepily leaning more and more weight on Jihoon as he leads them back to their room.
Jisoo follows Jihoon blindly to the bed, sitting when Jihoon pushes on his shoulders and resting his forehead on Jihoon's arm as he works the clasp on the cloak and pulls it off. Jisoo's already in his pyjamas, so it's easy for Jihoon to tug his sandals off and tuck him into bed where he immediately falls asleep.
Jihoon traces the face of his partner with his eyes. This year, Jisoo had sacrificed sleep for the grand ceremonial rebinding of the Head Dark and Head Light Mages, as he did every year. For the past three days, Jisoo had lived mainly on herbal drinks and Jihoon's magic as he built up the "sacrifice" he was to offer up to Jihoon.
It was ridiculous. Jihoon would much rather have the sleep in Jisoo than use it as a component to rebind them, but unfortunately it was necessary as nobody had found a way around it quite yet-- though not for a lack of trying.
Besides, King Seungcheol had already abolished most of the unnecessary parts of the ceremony, only keeping enough there for appearance's sake. Jisoo still needed to convert something of his into the magic he'd intertwine with Jihoon to restrengthen their magical bond, and sleep was by far the least damaging of all the things he could potentially sacrifice. At least now he didn't have to drip his blood into a cup and Jihoon didn't have to drink it. The rest of the kingdom were still of the opinion that Dark Mages were named so because they did actual evil, and that if you looked a Mage in the face they'd smite you on the spot. But as long as they weren't requiring Jisoo to give up more things just for show, Jihoon wasn't too fussed.
Beside him, Jisoo mumbles something and stretches to reach out to Jihoon's side of the bed, face slack with sleep for the first time in days. The worried knot in Jihoon loosens a little at the sight, and he feels suddenly weary after the extensive ceremonial preparations of the past few days. Sighing, he shoves Jisoo back over to his side of the bed and gets in with him for a quick nap.
~~~~~~
Jisoo is always too thoughtful.
Jihoon ends up in the kitchen with him, watching his arms move up and down as he cuts cucumber slices for lunch. They're covered in scars: old, faded lines with newer pink, puckered lines overlapping them, the result of a hundred different ceremonies and a hundred slices of the blade. It's nothing Jihoon hasn't seen before-- he helped bandage half of them-- but he finds himself thinking more about it today, the reality of it laid out bare on the skin of Jisoo's forearms. There's a faint diagonal line just beneath the jut of the ulna on his right wrist that Jihoon remembers being the first cut, done in class by the instructor and hidden under a plaster like a dirty secret. Its pair is the thin line on his other wrist that Jisoo made himself, sitting at his desk with the knife clutched shaking and too tightly in his hand for minutes and minutes until Jihoon, trying not to look but unable to stop, saw the blade slice down out of the corner of his eye.
Jisoo had sucked air in through his teeth and dropped the knife. Jihoon had very carefully not turned around, remained staring unseeingly at the page he was supposed to memorise for tomorrow until the bathroom door had closed and Jisoo wasn't there to see him glance haltingly over his shoulder before giving up and getting out of his chair to go over to Jisoo's desk. The knife, not even bloodied, was still where it had been dropped: on a book detailing how and in which hand to hold a blade for a specific purpose or meaning. He'd still been debating whether to pick it up and clean it off or not when Jisoo traipsed out of the bathroom, a matching plaster on his other wrist. Jihoon had started guiltily, not wanting to be caught looking but unsure of why. Jisoo hadn't said anything though, just reached past Jihoon for the knife. Watching him, Jihoon had thought that Jisoo was someone who was far braver than he was.
Watching him now, Jihoon thinks that the easy, firm precision of Jisoo's slices probably comes from all the practise he's had on himself.
"Jihoon, are you done with the cheese?" Jihoon looks up from the bowl of cream cheese he's been stirring, jolted out of his thoughts, and nods belatedly.
They relocate to the counter. Jisoo stands a handspan away from Jihoon, carefully not crowding him and giving him enough personal space. It's a very Jisoo thing, to know things like that about people, to always remember the little details and account for them. It's something Jihoon is no good at; he only ever knows anything about Jisoo because they've been together for so long.
"Did you want some as well?" he asks, when he sees Jisoo set aside some plain toast on a separate plate for Wonwoo. Jisoo isn't always good with solid food when he hasn't slept enough.
He shakes his head. "Maybe a little later," he says, apologetically. Jihoon puts another sandwich into the basket, leaves it alone.
They pile a trolley high with plates and leave it in the communal research area for the others, taking the basket with them. Jisoo tries the door for Room 17 and holds it open for Jihoon when it isn't locked.
"Food!" cheers Soonyoung, hopping off the table where Junhui and Wonwoo are poring over a book and taking the basket off Jihoon, "I'm so happy, you don't even know, you two are angels."
"There's plain toast for Wonwoo if he wants it," says Jisoo, bearing patiently with Soonyoung's hugging, "I brought some just in case."
"Oh, favouritism?" teases Wonwoo, getting up to peer into the basket. Soonyoung pouts.
"He's had three separate people show up today just to give him food since he's allowed to eat today. I'm glad you didn't forget about us, everyone always just wants to stuff Wonwoo. Seokmin brought him an apple pie, and he ate the entire thing himself."
"It was an incredibly good, delicious, scrumptious, mouth-watering, sweet, warm, crunchy, excellent apple pie."
"Meannnn," whines Soonyoung, throwing himself dramatically over Junhui's shoulders, "did you hear him, he ate it and he didn't give any to me and he's describing how it tasted!"
"Mmhm," says Junhui, distracted. Soonyoung puffs his cheeks out at him, annoyed, but lets Junhui steal a bite of his sandwich anyway. Behind them, Jisoo hides a laugh behind his hand.
"Did you eat already?" Wonwoo asks him.
Jihoon hears him reply, "I had a little earlier," and wanders over to see what Junhui's doing, leaves it alone. The spell the Junhui-Soonyoung-Wonwoo trio have been trying to get to work since forever is pinned to the wall right above them. Junhui also has another copy he's been scribbling on, tucked beside the huge tome he's flipping through now.
"We think it might be connected to that quarter-circle of runes that was found near Carrot River," says Soonyoung through his sandwich, watching him, "because we might've been looking at it the wrong way around. If we account for some erosion and messy sigil-drawing, the circle might be orientated east-west instead of north-south. We're just missing a few more symbols."
"You think it's the same spell?"
"It makes sense. The old castle at Carrot River is in an easily defensible position, and the river probably washed away the rest of the circle. Maybe it needs to be done outside or something. Junhui wants to try it soon, sometime this week."
"I was hoping I could prove something by finding the rest of the symbols. But I've gone through the whole book five times by now, and I haven't found anything." Junhui gives a frustrated sigh, and pushes his glasses up his nose. "I don't know, maybe it's worth trying outside anyway. This would be so much easier if the whole "Magic Exclusivity" thing hadn't happened."
Wonwoo snorts, coming up behind them. "If that hadn't happened we wouldn't need to figure out how this spell worked anyway, because we'd already know."
Jihoon grimaces. If the previous group of Dark and Light Mages hadn't fought, set all of the biggest libraries in all the kingdoms on fire and then vanished off to whoever-knew-where, a lot of the kingdom's existing problems wouldn't be problems at all. Re-discovering elementary magical principles and reverse-engineering whatever spells they had left would help a lot, but even the best and brightest Mages could only do so much.
"Maybe we'd really be enemies if it hadn't," says graduated-third-in-class Kwon Soonyoung, placing cucumber slices from his fourth sandwich on his eyelids and lying back on the table, "like how we're meant to be Dark and Light and opposing forces and hating each other and segregated and all that."
"I certainly hate you," says Wonwoo, rolling his eyes.
"You don't count, you're the same as I am."
"Junhui's too nice to hate either of us."
"And Jisoo isn't?"
"We don't actually have any connection with the previous Mages," Jihoon points out, "when they left they took all the known Mages and all their history with them, we don't have to hate anyone just because they might've. Besides, they could've just misled us like we're misleading everyone right now. Our abilities complement each other too well for it to be a coincidence."
"The kingdom is very traditional, with a lot of culture that depends on its own history, but we have very little idea of what that history even is," Junhui says, quietly.
The others are silent, contemplative. Out of the corner of his eye, Jihoon sees Jisoo yawn and prop his hip on the side of the table. He sees Jihoon looking and gestures that he's fine, but Jihoon makes an excuse to the others and ushers him out anyway.
"You don't have to take care of me, you know."
"Then stop being a troublesome person who doesn't take care of himself enough. "
He sighs, but lets Jihoon lead the way back, even as he's clearly heading for the kitchen again. Taking care of people is very much not Jihoon's strong suit, but someone has to try. Jisoo manages to keep down some soup, this time, so Jihoon is satisfied even if he can't quite finish the chicken.
In the hallways outside their rooms, they bump into King Seungcheol and Hansol with arms piled high with books, arguing about something.
"Look, Dark Mages traditionally convert energy. That's why they were named "dark", because they sucked in the light. The circle is impossible if the Dark and Light Mages switch positions. It just doesn't work," says Hansol, frustrated.
"Could it? I mean, we don't technically know anything."
Hansol sighs. "I'm not a magic historian for nothing, Your Majesty. It's clear that the person who has to create the actual spell has to be on the outside to receive the magic and actually materialise it, since the circle directs the magic outwards. And since Light Mages are in charge of the creation aspect, they have to be the ones to materialise the magic. So no, I don't think it's possible."
"Could the Dark Mage bounce it back?" asks King Seungcheol, frowning.
"Yes, but then why not just invert the circle structure? It's easier, and conserves energy."
"Is this about the new part-circle they discovered next to the old guardhouse?" pipes up Jisoo.
King Seungcheol nods. "Part of it is under the foundations of the building, so it doesn't actually make any sense for the Light Mage to be on the outside of the circle. If they were inside, they'd be protected. The Dark Mage obviously doesn't need the protection, because they can protect themselves. It doesn't take much work to just make the circle redirect the magic inside."
"It doesn't make sense either way!" groans Hansol.
Tilting his head, Jihoon asks, "Wasn't there a similar problem with the part-circle we found on the border? Someone had to be in the river or something for that one to work."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, go ask Seungkwan about it. I remember he and Minghao were complaining about it a few months ago."
"Thanks!" says Hansol, shifting to get a better grip on his books and rushing off in the direction of the research area.
"Good job picking up on that," says their king, approvingly. He turns to Jisoo. "And how are you? The ceremony was yesterday, did you rest up well?"
Jihoon says, "We're going to go take a nap now, actually," before Jisoo can even open his mouth.
King Seungcheol looks worried. "You should get more sleep," he says, peering at the dark circles still under Jisoo's eyes, "you two should maybe take a few days off."
"I'm fine, Your Majesty, thank you, but there's no need to worry."
"No," says King Seungcheol thoughtfully, "I don't want to work you to death. You and Jihoon have served me well these past few years, and you look like you're about to drop. Go to Seokmin's festival tonight or something. Have some fun. I'll tell Chan and Mingyu. It's an order," he adds, as Jisoo tries to protest.
"Thank you, Your Majesty," says Jihoon. Jisoo looks a little unhappy, but doesn't say anything as the king nods at them and leaves them to continue back to their rooms.
"I don't need to sleep, Jihoon," sighs Jisoo once they're inside, "really, I'm fine."
"Even if you don't need it, there's nothing wrong with doing it anyway. King's orders."
"You don't have to sleep with me all the time, either," he adds as Jihoon gets into bed next to him.
Jihoon doesn't say anything, just thinks about being fifteen and watching Jisoo go through his magical education, different from Jihoon's, how he hadn't even known anything was wrong until he woke up one night to the sound of Jisoo dry heaving in the bathroom. He'd stayed frozen in his bed, not knowing what to do as the noise of the water running down the drain filtered through the door, still couldn't make himself say anything as Jisoo climbed back into his bed like nothing was wrong, not even trying to wake Jihoon up. Minutes ticked by, then Jihoon had forced himself up, something icy and leaden sitting in the pit of his stomach, to push his bed across the room right next to Jisoo's.
Jisoo had tried pretending to be asleep, but had tensed up involuntarily when Jihoon got back into bed behind him. Jihoon had tried to curl them close, feeling the cold sweat on the back of Jisoo's neck, unsure if Jisoo really wanted the proximity.
After that, he'd fallen asleep at some point, but had been woken up again when Jisoo woke up gasping and choking next to him. He'd waited, eyes wide open, staring at the fuzzy shape of the chandelier and hearing Jisoo retch again and again and again in the bathroom.
He'd only closed his eyes when he heard the sound of Jisoo padding back across the room. There had been a pause as Jisoo stood beside the bed, then Jihoon had felt the bed dip as Jisoo got in and rolled over to push his face into Jihoon's shoulder, clutching wordlessly at his nightshirt.
Jihoon had put his arms around him and patted him a little awkwardly, feeling entirely out of his depth. Jisoo had fallen asleep eventually, but Jihoon hadn't dared to stop moving his hands.
The next morning, neither of them made any attempts to put Jihoon's bed back to where it was supposed to be, so it had just stayed permanently next to Jisoo's.
That was six years ago. Jihoon wonders if Jisoo's thinking about that too.
If he is, he doesn't voice it.
~~~
Jisoo wakes up again, a little before five. Jihoon's been up for hours by then, reading while propped up on his elbows next to him.
"You didn't have to stay here," he says again. Jisoo hasn't had bad nights in a long time, but Jihoon knows he'd hide them if he did, so he just tells him "Seokmin's festival starts in an hour," and gets out of bed to get dressed.
Second Prince Seokmin's festival is always an extremely big event. Many people from different places specifically come for it every year, travelling miles and miles just to celebrate together. Jihoon still remembers Prince Seokmin's first announcement, walking onto stage with shaky legs and declaring that he was going to try hosting a festival to break up the monotony of working every day. It was small thing held by the river, quickly overwhelmed by how many people turned up for it. A wild success. The next year, King Seungcheol offered his son more funding, and the festival had only grown larger and larger every year from there.
They're not officially allowed out of the castle as Mages, though, so Jihoon pulls their travellers' clothes out from the trunk in the closet. They're a little dusty; they haven't taken a trip out of the castle in a while.
The festival is themed around lanterns this time. Jihoon and Jisoo get offered lanterns by a young girl at the entrance and told to make a wish when they release it on Carrot River. Jisoo picks a red lantern, and Jihoon picks blue. The girl smiles at them, and tells them she hopes their wishes come true.
Making a wish and expecting it to come true is stupid, but Jihoon does it anyway, wishing for health and happiness and prosperity and for Jisoo to start goddamn telling him things as he stares into the flame of the candle inside his lantern. The he rolls his sleeves up and sets it gently into the cold river, careful not to let his wet hands drip into the opening at the top of the lantern. The lower section of Carrot River is calm, so it knocks gently into Jisoo's lantern as it floats away.
"I got my sleeves wet," says Jisoo from next to him. Jihoon opens his mouth to call him stupid for not pulling his sleeves up, then shuts it when he remembers Jisoo can't without baring his forearms and showing the entire festival what he is.
"Do you want my cloak instead?" he offers. Jisoo shakes his head and makes a poor attempt at squeezing the water out from the ends of his sleeves.
Jihoon wonders what he wished for, if he wished for anything at all.
"Welcome, everyone, to the 4th Festival on Carrot River! Thank you all again for coming this year and making this a great success!" Prince Seokmin's voice booms across them, magically enhanced, "We'll now begin the festivities with a performance in ten minutes. Don't miss it!"
"We should find him, he's done such a great job this year too," says Jisoo, so they move through the crowds towards the temporary stage and the tent set up beside it. They make sure nobody's around before ducking in through the back of tent, where Prince Seokmin's talking to a pair in a black cloak and a white cloak. It turns out to be Mingyu and his partner, Chan.
"Hey," Mingyu greets them as they walk to. Chan and Prince Seokmin are going over the finer details of what magic needs to be done for the performances. "I heard from the king, you two should take it easy. Don't worry, Chan and I will be fine."
"Thank you," says Jisoo, smiling a little ruefully.
Mingyu laughs. "If we can't even step up when needed, why are we both the Second Heads? Our titles aren't just for show."
"You two elders can even retire if you want," teases Chan.
"We're only a few years older than you," Jisoo scolds, laughing. He turns to Seokmin. "You did a great job this year too, Seokmin, the lanterns were all so nice."
"Oooh, did you wish for something and set them on the river then?" Seokmin asks eagerly.
"Yep!"
"Ahh, I'm so glad you're enjoying yourselves. You Mages work so hard, I'm so grateful I can host events where everyone can enjoy themselves."
"We are," says Jihoon a little gruffly, "congratulations, you've done well."
"Jihoon's never complimented me before, this is really something to celebrate!"
"Shut up," he grumbles, "I'll tell you that you did a good job if I think it's true. It's not that hard to earn praise from me."
"He calls me stupid all the time," Jisoo stage-whispers to the rest. Jihoon rolls his eyes.
"Prince Seokmin!" someone calls from the back, and Seokmin ducks away quickly, saying "Oops, gotta go, have fun tonight!"
"He's grown a lot," says Mingyu fondly. "It seems like yesterday when he was still worried about not being able to live up to his brother or father."
Jihoon snorts. "His Majesty's been in the business for decades, and I haven't met anyone better at scheming than Jeonghan yet. Seokmin's not meant for that stuff. He's doing perfectly fine with everything he's doing now."
Chan stares. "Wow, you're really laying it on thick today, huh? Are you going soft? I can see that you really needed this break if this is what it was doing to you," he says, and Jisoo drags Jihoon out of the tent before he can prove to Chan exactly how much he has not been going soft.
They go and take look at the stalls, and Jisoo buys some overpriced fried chicken and baked potatoes. Jihoon doesn't complain about it like he usually would, just glad that Jisoo seems to be in a mood to eat, and refuses when Jisoo offers him some. The singing starts up from the stage as they move farther and farther down the line of stalls, farther and farther away from the crowds. Jisoo tries to win a stuffed rabbit in a throwing game, but misses. Jihoon puts a bit of his magic into the ball before his throw, and succeeds. He knows that Jisoo didn't really like that he cheated, but he doesn't mention it and takes the rabbit without complaint once they've left the stall.
Magic should be good for something, Jihoon figures, other than making Jisoo miserable.
Jihoon is a little taken aback by his thoughts-- is Jisoo miserable?
Suddenly, Jihoon realises that he knows nothing about where Jisoo came from. The king allows them to visit their families, but Jisoo never seemed to go see his. He'd thought perhaps that Jisoo was from a family who'd disowned their child after they turned out to be a Dark Mage, but of so, why had he never said anything to Jihoon about it?
Jihoon knows the slow blink Jisoo does whenever he's trying to stay awake, the foods he likes best after being sick, the feel of his magic thrumming though his body, but he doesn't even know if Jisoo has siblings.
"Do you have any siblings?"
"I have a sister," says Jisoo, then, "what brought that on?"
Jihoon shrugs. "I just realised I didn't know," he says, a little defensively.
Jisoo hums. "She's three years older than me. She travels with my parents, so I haven't seen them in a while."
"Travels?"
"My parents are travellers. Living the nomadic life."
"I see," says Jihoon, a little relieved that Jisoo's parents weren't prejudiced against him for what he did, "that's interesting. How did you come to be here, then?"
"I was passing through your kingdom, and the identifying spell got me. I tried it out, decided I wanted to stay, and my parents let me."
Jihoon blinks, surprised. "Weren't you only fourteen?"
It's Jisoo's turn to shrug. "Mmhm. What about it?"
Jihoon can't imagine saying goodbye to his family at fourteen to stay on in a strange land while they continued to travel without him.
"It wasn't that weird for me," Jisoo continues, "because I'd already seen and gotten used to a lot of new places before this one. We'd never stay somewhere for too long. My parents would always be itching to get back onto the road. Leaving is always easier than you think it is."
"I've never left this kingdom," Jihoon admits.
"Most people haven't, and won't. But we could always leave tomorrow if we felt like it, you know?"
Jihoon starts. "But what about the kingdom? What about the rest of the Mages? What would we even pack? Where would we go? Wouldn't the king stop us? Wh-"
"I was kidding," laughs Jisoo, "but it's not really that hard. You just need a map, food, water, money, and a lot of rope. And you know the king would let us go. Heck, he'd probably give us the things we needed and send us off."
Not for the first time, Jihoon thinks that Jisoo is a lot braver than he is.
"I'm not sure I could leave without you anymore, though," continues Jisoo, grinning, "I'd miss you a lot."
"Don't get all sentimental on me, Jisoo."
"I would never."
Jihoon shoves his shoulder. Jisoo only laughs harder. They find a tree stump relatively close to the river, and that's where they sit for the rest of the night, just enjoying each other's company and waiting for the main event.
It doesn't disappoint. The lanterns look beautiful, floating downstream together, reds and whites and blues and greens all clumped together. Jihoon wonders if their lanterns are still travelling together.
When all the lanterns have passed, they go back up to the castle together. Jihoon is immensely grateful to the cloak for insulating him against the chilly night. He wonders if Jisoo ever owned one like this, if it was used for actual travelling instead of as a disguise.
Jihoon doesn't want to leave the castle, but what Jisoo said is stuck in his brain. He can't help thinking about it.
What's out there? What's it like? Does he even want to find out? He's never left this kingdom.
Jihoon lies awake, thinking, long after Jisoo's fallen asleep beside him.